FROM: Dave Hornbeck, IVPAA
SUBJECT: Promotion and Tenure Guidelines for 2003-2004
DATE: August 22, 2003
This memo concerns the promotion and tenure process for the upcoming 2003-2004 academic year. It will be distributed by email attachment within Academic Affairs and posted on the VPAA web site. As well, school deans will ensure that a hard copy is placed in mailboxes of tenured and tenure-track faculty. Separately, you will receive a list of faculty eligible for promotion and/or tenure.
As you know, the Faculty Senate has not completed its review of proposed P&P revisions on promotion, tenure, and faculty activities. Therefore, the president, faculty moderator, and I have agreed to use the same P&Ps and interim guidelines next year that were used this year--while the Senate and faculty complete their P&P deliberations. In other words, for 2003-2004 we will use the approved P&P 803.08, 803.09, and 803.075 now in place--with adjustments listed below to accommodate the campus restructuring and to provide librarians with promotion and tenure guidelines, which are not included in the P&Ps mentioned above. Thus our procedure will be essentially unchanged from that used during the 2002-2003 academic year.
NOTE: New P&Ps are now under review. Indeed, a new promotion P&P has been recommended to the president this week. If new or working documents are approved in time for use next year, the president will so inform the campus.
1. Applicable P&Ps for Teaching Faculty: The teaching faculty will use promotion, tenure, and faculty activities P&Ps now on the official SPSU web site. These P&Ps have revision dates of April 2000 (Promotion 803.08), April 2000 (Tenure 803.09), and June 2000 (Faculty Activities 803.075). Main clarifications and exceptions are listed below.
2. Applicable P&Ps for Library Faculty: Because the P&Ps mentioned above do not include librarians, the library faculty will use the previous promotion and tenure P&Ps that do include librarians and that carry March 1996 and March 1993 revision dates, respectively. (Copies will be sent to the library director for distribution to library faculty.) Main clarifications and exceptions are listed below.
3. Eligibility Notification: Before the end of the Spring 2003 term, faculty will be notified if they are eligible to apply for promotion and/or tenure next fall.
4. Choice of Department/School Peer Committee: As before, the department or school committee is the first step in the process. This year, the schools and programs were given the choice of selecting one committee option or the other. Next year we will continue with choices made this year. Thus the ETM, A&S, and ACC Schools will use department committees, and the CSE School will use a school-wide committee.
5. Membership and Voting in Department/School Peer Committee: Each department or school committee must have at least three members. All tenured associate and full professors--EXCEPT department chairs--are eligible to be elected to the committees. The committees select their own chairs.
6. Campus Peer Committee: The Campus Peer Committee will include one representative elected from each department. Departments with more than ten faculty in tenure-track or tenured positions will have two members on the committee.
7. Dr. RossbacherŐs Official Interpretations of P&Ps: Before departments or schools select committee members, they should review Dr. RossbacherŐs April 7, 2000, interpretations attached to the P&Ps referenced in Point #1 of this memo. These interpretations apply again this year to the review of all teaching and library faculty.
8. Role of Department Chairs: EACH PACKAGE WILL ADVANCE FROM THE DEPARTMENT PEER COMMITTEE TO THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR, WHO WILL PROVIDE A VOTE AND A LETTER SUPPORTING THAT VOTE TO THE DEAN. (THE COVER SHEET WILL BE MODIFIED TO ACCOMMODATE THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR VOTE) In the case of CSE, if the department peer committees are not used, the department chair should initiate the recommendation to the school peer committee.
9. Content and Structure of Packets: The same packet guidelines apply next year that were in place this year. The application package to be given to each eligible faculty member--and also available in the deansŐ offices--describes the required eight-part structure and includes a list of the presidentŐs expectations. As the president notes, each packet should include at least two letters from experts outside SPSU. These letters are counted in the 50-page limit for the Appendix.
10. CandidateŐs Access to Recommendations: Like last year, each candidate will be able to see his or her own on-campus recommendations. In other words, deans will show candidates letters from department/school committees and from deans, the interim VPAA will share recommendations letters from the Campus Peer Committee and from the interim VPAA, and the president will send candidates copies of her recommendation letters. Each candidate sees only those recommendations that relate to his or her own package.
In addition to using the 10 points in this memo, please consult the P&Ps mentioned in Points #1 and #2 above for further information about the entire process (for example, about the effect of negative votes on the progress of a package and about the grievance process). Also talk with your dean if you are on the eligibility list, which will be distributed to tenured and tenure-track faculty before the end of the Spring 2003 term.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the process.
c. Dr. Rossbacher